Santa Claus, Harry Potter and Baby Jesus

Sometimes being politically correct is just so wrong:

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — The annual Nativity creche on the Walton County Courthouse lawn will look a little different this year.

The County Commission decided this week to include secular items such as a snowman to the display after Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent the county a letter in July claiming that the creche is unconstitutional.

The article states that a snowman or Santa Claus might be added to the display. I see that, and raise the Walton County weaklings one Harry Potter statue, the complete cast of "Golden Compass" and Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo.


(Hat tip: DMN religion blog)

'Harry Potter' a 'Zionist conspiracy'

Of course. We should have known it all along. Harry Potter isn't Christian. He couldn't be. The only explanation for his insane popularity is that he's part of a Zionist global conspiracy. Thanks, Iran for foiling this devious plot. From Israel National News:

Kayhahn, an Iranian publication closely affiliated with the ruling mullahs and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the Harry Potter series "a billion-dollar Zionist project." The Potter books were designed by Zionist plotters, according to the Kayhahn editorial, to "disrupt young minds." Khamenei had criticized Iran's Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry for approving the distribution of the latest book in the Harry Potter series, which was released last weekend with much fanfare.

"The story," notes DMN religion reporter Jeffrey Weiss, "also cites a Muslim cleric in Sudan who blames the genocide in Darfur on Jews."

Well, duh.

Gawker: Jews will do anything for a dollar

So I was hip to the Harry Potter Shabbat crisis (actually my GeekHeeb colleague was and I poached). Gawker's super-hipness regarding Harry manifested itself last week in the from of age-old anti-Semitism.

The post -- dealing with the same story that though Israeli bookstores were legally barred from selling "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" when it came out Saturday, some would anyway -- said "Head Heebs in the Holy Land are trying to keep bookstores closed." That's harmless enough, but then it went on. colleague was and I poached). But I wasn't aware that

Some stores are planning to open anyway—these are Jews, let's remember, and a buck's a buck—which has resulted in predictable outrage from the more Adonai-adoring elements of Israeli society.

"They didn’t just go there, did they?" Mark Caro asked on his Pop Machine blog for the Chicago Tribune. "What, is it Fun with Ages-Old Slanderous Stereotypes Week?"

The piece then quotes someone from the United Torah Judaism Party (by way of an Associated Press story) slamming the Potter books’ “defective messages” and their subculture before the Gawker writer fires back: “[I]sn't this exactly how some of us feel about, you know, the Bible and its subculture of weird, tallis-wearing followers?”

Hee hee -- Orthodox Jews and other Bible readers sure are a bunch of weirdos!

This reminds me a bit of Tommy Thompson's gaffe about Jews and their love of money while trying to court the Jewish vote. Sheesh.

The Harry Potter gospel

An Amazon.com search for "gospel according to" nets over 11,000 hits. You can read "The Gospel According to Superman," "The Gospel According to the Simpsons" or, shockingly, "The Gospel According to Jesus." Personally, I prefer the Gospel of Mark; it's a quick read.

And today, Christianity Today posted a story titled "The Gospel According to Harry Potter," not to be confused with a book by the same name. (WARNING: This link is filled with spoilers.) Here's the opening:

I first met Harry Potter when my grandmother was dying.

On New Years Day 1999, she had a massive stroke from which she would never recover. Not wanting her to die alone, we took turns sitting by her bedside, round the clock. The night I spent with her, I brought along my Bible, the biggest cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee I could find, and a new novel, picked up from the bookstore on the way to the hospital: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Both the Bible and the "Boy Who Lived" proved good company during the watches of the night. Both pointed the way to hope in the face of death.

And there was at least one echo from the Scriptures in the Sorcerer's Stone: Lord Voldemort, the Hitleresque dark wizard in J.K. Rowling's fictional works, was defeated not by power but by love—by a young mother who sacrificed her life to save her young son. In Rowling's world, that kind of love is stronger than any magic. It can even conquer death.

By the time Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows opens, however, it seems that death finally has the upper hand.

We discussed here last week whether Harry Potter was a Christian. Bob Smietana writes that after 3,365 soul-less pages, "Christ begins to whisper in The Deathly Hallows."

I'll stop there so I don't spoil any plot twists. If you've already finished the book -- I have not yet begun, but my wife is almost there -- let me know if you agree.

Selling Harry Potter on Shabbat against the law

Who cares whether Harry Potter is a Christian, you're about to get fined whatever his faith if you're an Israeli bookseller planning on making bank when the final installment in the "Potter" series comes out Saturday morning. My colleague Adam Wills is talking about the story over at his blog, GeekHeeb.

Since it's happening on Shabbat, Orthodox Israeli lawmakers are having apoplectic fits about bookstores staying open on the day of rest to take part in the Potter-mania. In fact, Industry and Trade Minister Eli Yishai is threatening to fine stores that sell the book before Shabbat ends.

“Israeli law forbids businesses to force their employees to work on the Sabbath, and that applies in this case as well. The minister will fine and prosecute any businesses which violate the law,” Shas Party spokesman Roei Lachmanovich said.

That's bad news, not just for Israeli Harry Potter fans -- and what about observant Jews who will break Shabbat throughout the world to get a copy? -- but particularly for Steimatzky, Israel's largest bookseller, which says it has a contractual agreement to begin selling "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" at the same time as everyone else.

Is Harry Potter a Christian?

I didn't even realize this was a possibility, what with J.K. Rowling accused of being a Wiccan and some
Christians not thinking it safe for their children to read the Harry Potter books.

But the seventh and final installment comes out at 12:01 a.m. Saturday and the news stories are starting to go around and some people are looking to define the religious landscape within which Harry lives. Here's Potter man Jeffrey Weiss over at the DMN religion blog's take.

I find it as strange that some Christians claim that Potter is explicitly Christian as I find those Christians who find it explicitly Satanic. At least for the first six books, Rowling has been astonishingly a-religious. Zero mentions of God, Satan, angels, prayer, the Bible, heaven, or hell. Christmas is presented denuded of any religious explanation or ritual. Even Dumbeldore's funeral included no hint of explicit religion, much less Christianity.

But it's written broadly enough that I wouldn't argue with someone who finds Christian meaning in there. Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or Zoroastrian meaning, either. Whatever someone finds between the lines of a text is there for that reader. And Rowling leaves a lot of room between some of her lines.

The best argument I can find in the extensive online chat as evidence of explicit religion in HP is a sideways one